Iran’s condensate exports hit new record
The latest official figures show that Iran exported a record volume of 24 million barrels of condensate to Europe and Asia in January.
Shana new agency in a report said that the volume had been stored over several past months in tankers at sea.
The agency added that the bulk of exports had been made to Asia.
It quoted Ali Kardor, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), as saying in a recent press conference that a cargo of one million barrels had also been delivered to BP – what it said was the biggest such cargo that had been handed over to a European company so far.
Kardor had further said that Iran’s current production capacity of condensate - which can be used to make both fuel and plastic - stood at 550,000 barrels per day (bpd).
He had emphasized that the figure was a result of Iran’s progress in production of condensate after the removal of sanctions last January.
The current levels, the NIOC chief said, marked a significant increase from the previous levels of around 325,000 bpd that existed before the sanctions were lifted.
He said that Iran’s current condensate production could increase to as high as 1 million bpd once the remaining phases of South Pars gas project come on stream.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Kardor said that Iran still had 25 million barrels of condensate stored in tankers, adding that the volume would be sold before May.
He said that the overall sales of around 50 million barrels of condensate would generate above $2 billion for Iran given that each barrel of the fuel would be worth some $40.